Lonely But Not Alone
by HecateA
Summary: Lily didn't want to mix good news with bad news on the worst day of James' life, but perhaps this is what her newly orphaned husband needs. Oneshot. Warnings inside.


**Author's Note: **Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

**Hogwarts: **Assignment #4, Herbology, Task 1: Write about someone who is the last of a group, species, category, or family.

**Dedication: **For Elizabeth, over at the Hogwarts Gift Tag forum!

**Warnings:** Character death; grief

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**Lonely Together **

Lily's hands rested on James' shoulders and she dug her fingers into his muscles, like she used to do after a rough Quidditch practise to get rid of the knots in his shoulders. Unfortunately, she couldn't quite get rid of what was weighing on him now.

"It's done," Lily said. "It's over. You've done it, and you only had to do this once in your whole entire life."

"It was like burying my mother all over again," James whispered. He leaned his head back against Lily's chest and closed his eyes, pushed away the papers before him. The candle flickering on the corner of his father's old oak desk was alarmingly ephemeral and unsteady. He tried not to focus on it, which was difficult since he didn't want to look at his father's office either. He couldn't wait to take Lily and get away from the Potter Estate, back towards their little nook in Godric's Hollow and their colourful kitchen and the knicknacks and books lining their fireplace mantle and their bedroom that always smelled like Lily's lemon shampoo and their laundry soap. But there was just so much to do...

Lily's chin rested on the top of his head, flattening his corkscrew curls, and her arms slid down so they encircled his chest.

Her warmth was everything to him but he still felt alone and lost at the moment. She'd had to do the same thing as he had, when her parents had died in a Death Eater attack—if anything, James wasn't as alone as she'd been since he had her while she'd only had Petunia. So James knew that she knew what it was like and she wouldn't hold it against him that he couldn't talk, couldn't breathe, couldn't think.

"I don't know what to write back to Gringotts or Dad's old business partners or anything," James said. "Dad should have written a will, I don't know anything about managing a family name or patents or endowments or legacies, but I'm all that's left and I have to figure out how to manage it all and…"

"Don't let their words get to you," Lily said quietly. "Take your time. You'll figure out what to do. You're ingenuous and smart and calculated, I know you will. And if you can't trust yourself on that, trust me. I know who I married."

James nestled against her and sighed. He had folded the invisibility cloak over his knees, trying to keep it close as he'd worked. It was silly, but it made him feel a little bit closer to his family—which had never been further away.

"I… I feel alone," James said—somewhat guiltily since she knew she was there and warm and holding him. She'd spent all day holding his hand as he went through the motions of a big, wizarding funeral, after all. Fleamont Potter hadn't died unloved and as comforting as that might have been, it had also made this day exhausting.

"I know," Lily said quietly. She kissed the top of her head. "That's okay, love."

"I…" James laughed to himself, even if he wasn't going to say anything funny. "Part of me is stunned that I'm really the last one."

"The last what?" Lily asked.

"The last Potter," James said. "I mean… I'm… It was such a big family, or at least it felt like one when I was growing up, but time kept passing and I have you but I… I'm really the last one."

"Yes and no," Lily said quietly, her arms slipping away from him. She circled him to lean against the desk. "I… I think… I didn't want to bother you with this but…"

She seemed to freeze, her mouth open as if she was choking.

She looked down at her feet before looking up at him again, teary-eyed.

"I wish we'd gotten to tell your dad," she said.

"Lily, what..?"

"It's good news on a bad day and I didn't want to do that to you, but you're not… you're not the last one James. I'm pregnant."

James looked at her, speechless.

She took his hands.

"We're family, James. And you can always make family, you taught me that. And that's what we're going to do now, even if it is just you and me…"

He squeezed her hands and brought them to his lips, leaning against her and sighing.

He looked up at her and, for the first time since the funeral, felt tears in his eyes.

"Really?" he said.

"I didn't want to put you in this position," Lily said. "I'm sorry, I found out and I had this whole plan to tell you, but then your dad took a turn and…"

He pulled her down onto his lap and rested his forehead against the crook of her shoulder. Her hand found its way to his hair and it wasn't clear in that moment who was holding who, but James was just thankful that she was there and she was warm and she smelled like lemon and no, he wasn't alone. Not at all.

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**Stacked with: **MC4A; Shipping Wars; Hogwarts

**Individual Challenge(s): **Clowder; Gryffindor MC (x2); Brush; Seeds; Baby Mine; Minerva's Migraine; Old Shoes; Themes & Things A (New Beginnings); Themes & Things B (Loss); Themes & Things D (Desk); Themes & Things F (Mourning); Advice from the Mug; Ethnic & Present; Rian-Russo Inversion; Hold the Mayo; In a Flash; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux

**Word Count: **844

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_**Shipping Wars**_

**Ship (Team): **James Potter/Lily Evans (Patronus Pair)

**List (Prompt): **Winter Medium 1 (Joy)


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